Wednesday, September 23, 2009

So it's been a long long long time since I posted. That's largely due to two factors.

1. Getting married to the love of my life. The wedding was perfect. Just how we imagined and with lots of good friends and family. My only wish is that it could have lasted longer.

and 2. I've been writing some "webisodes" for Heroes.

NBC is telling me to call them "tagged media" but I'm not really sure what that means. The short version is they're videos that tie into the main plot line of the show. Some of them will appear on air and some will appear on the web. The long version is available on the Heroes writers blog I write for 9thwonders.com so hit that up for all the details.

I'm hoping to have some slightly bigger news to share with everyone in the coming month but I just have to wait until everything becomes official.

One last thing, I got an unexpected mention in issue 11 of Heroes Magazine this month. If you found your way here from that mention then "Welcome!", please let me know about it in the comments. Also, be sure to check out my blog on 9th Wonders for the latest Heroes news.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

So there are a bunch of things I can now happily announce about Heroes presence at Comic Con this year. I'll save the best for last so keep reading, but let's start with our "booths". Yes booths, plural.

And full disclosure, some of this is speculation/rumor/hearsay and schedules/plans etc. do change last minute so I apologize if any of this turns out to be incorrect. The reason I don't know for sure is that most of the comic-con planning is done by NBC promo department and the information gets filtered back through to us in bits and pieces. That said, I do work on Heroes so I must have some idea right? Let's hope so...

BOOTHSI'm told that inside the convention hall will be a Heroes themed Nissan booth. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I am told that's if you're trying to get your hands on this year's Heroes Limited Edition graphic novel, that's where you'll want to go. The comic is one you've already seen, "Rebellion part 3: Family" written by myself and art by Jason Badower. See below for details on where to find me and Jason if you want to get that or (almost) anything else signed. The exhibitors list has "Heroes" down for booth #5312. I can't confirm for sure that's us, but it sure looks like it.edit: Oops, that's not us. Heroes/Nissan booth will be *somewhere* on the floor.

Now what is this other "booth" I speak of? I'm told that across the street from the convention center, in front of the Hilton Gaslamp Quarter Hotel (at K & 4th street) will be a Heroes "tent". It's being sponsored by Sprint and I've heard rumors that they'll have some pretty awesome giveaways (possibly even a Palm Pre!) Now you may asking why "tent"? Well, if you attend our panel on Saturday I'm sure you'll find out, but I'll give you a one word hint: Carnival.

SATURDAY - HEROES PANELBy now you probably know that Heroes will be having its panel on Saturday from 3:15-4:15 in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront. Please note that this is a *different* Hilton than the one where the tent will be setup. The Bayfront is on Harbor Drive and 8th ave, at the South-East end of the convention center (same side of the street).

What you probably don't know is that the panel will be hosted/moderated by Attack of the Show's Blair Butler. She came into the office to view the season premiere and from what I hear is a Heroes fan and total geek in the best possible way (I love how geek and nerd are now terms of affection). Anyway, if Blair's recent "comic con dark secret" tweets are any indication, it should be a lot of fun.

Oh, and did I mention one late addition to the Heroes panel? I'm told that someone named "Hayden Panettiere" WILL be at the Heroes panel on Saturday. Did you need another reason to attend?

IN CONCLUSION*phew* I think that's everything. For more Heroes Comic Con details, stop by Heroes ARG who are doing a good job trying to wrangle all of the information together.

The Heroes All Access Party is definitely the best place to catch me if you'd like to get something signed but I will be at the Heroes panel and I'll try to stop by the line outside the Hilton, provided no-one kicks me out. I'll be at other places throughout the day Friday and Saturday and if you follow me on twitter, I'll try to post my movements. If you're getting desperate (during the weekend) you can always try to message me on twitter or shoot me an email. I'll do my best to try and meet everyone who wants to meet up.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I started this post on Monday, and didn't have time to come back to it until now (Friday), really that sums up what this post was about...

Life continues to race by at what is a largely uncontrollable speed. I feel like I'm taking every turn way to fast, but boy is it a thrilling ride! It finally caught up to me two weeks ago though and my body knocked me on my ass with what was finally diagnosed as "something that looks like but according to your chest x-ray isn't officially pneumonia". Whatever it was it gave me a 103 degree fever, wicked cough, sore through and chest pain. Abby was absolutely wonderful taking care of me -- making sure I took medicine, helping keep my temperature down, making me soup etc.

Antibiotics eventually cleared everything up but I was on my back for the better part of a week. The sad thing is that I kind of welcomed the time off. I almost never have the time to just laze about and watch crappy movies on TV. Even though my body was feeling awful I was really glad for the mental rest. It made me sort of sad that it took me getting sick to have some time off and get to spend some quality time with Abby.

HEROES

Heroes keeps me busy. The last part of the Rebellion arc of the graphic novels has been written and is now in the very capable hands of Jason Badower. We were very lucky to have just two artists work on this entire arc (Jason and Dennis Calero) which I think will really pay off when you read it all together and in the print version. We're still working out the details but I'm hoping at some point to do an "epilogue" for Rebellion too. I'm really proud of what we've done with this arc and it holds a special place for me as being the first thing I have seen through as an "editor".

On the show itself side of things we're going full speed ahead. Episodes six, seven and eight are all in various stages of being written while the rest of us are planning out the finer details of episodes nine through twelve. As *currently* scheduled (and things often change) episode twelve should be the final episode before our winter hiatus in December-January. We've got some exciting stuff planned.

After being occupied for the first few months of the season working on features, Battlestar Galactica (and TimeCop!!) veteran Mark Verheiden has returned to us at Heroes. We're also lucky enough to have Carlos Coto join the team. Carlos worked on 24 last year and is no stranger to time travel or Sci-Fi having spent time on Journeyman and Invasion. He's been a great addition to the Heroes team.

I continue to work on what I can currently only describe as "new media" content for Heroes. Details are still being worked out, but I'm excited about the story we're hoping to tell. I'll be sure to announce it once things are squared away.

COMIC-CON

I'm taking Abby to her very first comic con next week. We missed it last year due to a wedding and she couldn't make the year previous due to a firm event. Needless to say she's very excited. I can't wait to show her around.

I'll be at the Heroes panel on Saturday the 25th (3:15 at the Hilton Bayfront) and at some point that day I'm hoping to do a meet & greet/ signing/something with fans. Jason Badower will almost certainly be with me too. Details are stilll being worked out but I'll announce them as soon as I know. The best thing to do though is follow me on twitter as I'll be sure to send a tweet whenever I'm stopping anywhere for any length of time.

I'm also told there'll be a Nissan/Heroes booth somewhere on the showroom floor and that this is the place to be if you want to pick up the limited edition print comic of Rebellion part 3 "Family" written by myself and drawn by Jason Badower. I saw a copy yesterday which was pretty exciting as this is my first comic that has ever been "in print".

The other booth I want to let you know about is #1234 which is home to Becky Dreistadt of Tiny Kitten Teeth who did the incredible artwork for "Lookouts", my guest strip for Penny Arcade. The PA guys are just around the corner at #1237. If you dug Lookouts, please stop by and tell Becky and "Gabe & Tycho" of Penny Arcade.

That's it for now. Looking forward to meeting those of you who can make it to San Diego.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

So the final page of Lookouts, my guest comic for Penny Arcade, is now online. It was an absolute blast (and an honor) to write these and my hats off to Becky Dreistadt who did an amazing job with the art. I gave her a shit-ton of stuff to cram into those panels and she rocked it!

This final page really spells out what was going on with Aerden (the master) this whole time. My basic take for this whole story was that "May We Die In The Forest" wasn't just a motto, it was a god-damned commandment. This is the lesson that boys must learn -- not just that sometimes you go into the forest and don't come out, but that sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Obviously this is a pretty fucked up way of living and I imagined that this very thought had been weighing on Aerden's mind for some time. When he saw the boys fighting as bravely and valiently as they did in page 4 (at at time when many men would have just thrown in the towel) he decided that it was time for a change and jumped into the fight.

It was this act that made the elders angry and has apparently set in motion what will be a problematic time for the entire Lookouts community. Aerden's act is what Philip K. Dick calls "a quiet refusal" in his speech "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later." There's one paragraph in particular from this speech that really blew me away:

The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not.

For me, that seemed to really sum up the Lookouts universe. It's a universe in which childhood is extremely fleeting and a result looses the authenticity that comes with it. There's something about the innocence of a child that says, "yeah, I can kick a basilisk's ass". When Aerden saw that, it brought out in him another childish/innocent/authentic sentiment -- "even if it's for the 'greater good', leading boys out into a forest to be devoured by monsters is just plain wrong."

So in a way, this story wasn't so much about the coming of age for these boys, but the return to childhood for Aerden. At one point his final line was something horribly cheesy like "Then let us prepare for war!" but I dropped it instead for the "I have seen far more bravery from boys of late." Basically Aerden believes, like the Lookouts, "yeah, I can kick a basilisk's ass." In fact he believes he can kick the whole forest's ass if others join in his way of thinking.

So there you have it, that's my view into the universe of Lookouts. Hopefully it won't fall apart in two days time. Thanks for reading.

Friday, July 3, 2009

The third page of Lookouts is now online. I hope you're enjoying it so far and before I go any further I have to give a huge kudos to Becky Dreistadt who has done amazing job in a very short amount of time. I finished the script to Lookouts on Monday which gave Becky about 48 hours to turn around the first page. This is rather staggering to me. To give you some perspective, with the Heroes graphic novels we typically allow 3-4 weeks for a 5-6 page comic (which averages out to 3-4 days per page at the worst). To put it simply, she's amazing.

Gabe posted on twitter that this is the first time Penny Arcade has done a guest week in ten years, which for me to be a part of is an incredible honor. As well as a staggering amount of pressure. First and foremost I'm a Penny Arcade fan, have been for a long time now. I have a laser cel CTS hanging in my office and a signed printout of my two favorite strips hanging up at home.

So with all that in mind, taking on this project was a pretty daunting task. Gabe & Tycho did a podcast(mp3) about their original Lookouts strip which I'd already listened to once, but listened to again (several times) to let it really sink in. It proved an invaluable resource for keeping with Gabe & Tycho's vision and you'll see a few ideas that were pulled directly out of that podcast. Namely, the concept that boys are trying to get their "basilisk badge" and secondly, the vision of the basilisk as "more chicken than lizard".

The other thing that Tycho had linked in his original post about Lookouts, was a speech by Philip K. Dick, one of my favorite authors, called "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later." I'd begun reading it for my own edification before I got the Lookouts gig and it ended up having a profound influence on how I shaped the remaining story for Lookouts (I'll explain how in more detail once it's done). If you're a writer or storyteller of any medium, I strongly recommend reading this. It's long, but well worth the read.

PAGE THREE

I think this is going to be my favorite page. There's only one line of dialog, true, but it sets up the central mystery in the story of what exactly their master is playing at. But mostly the basilisk just gets to kick some ass, and what's more fun than that? In my head I've been calling this "The Basilisk Strikes Back". It's your typical betrayal/all-is-lost/everyone-gets-their-ass-handed-to-them moment. That's always my favorite part in a movie (or trilogy), hopefully you enjoy it!

That's it for now, don't forget to follow me on twitter for Heroes news, Lookouts tidbits, and to hear me lament about having pneumonia :/

Monday, June 29, 2009

So I've been keeping this under my hat for an eternity (one week) but I can now officially announce that I'm writing "Lookouts" for Penny Arcade! This is essentially a dream project for me, and I'm still somewhat in shock from the fact that I'm getting to work with two people I basically consider my heroes.

Page 1 was done as a pitch (aka pilot) by Gabe & Tycho two weeks back and I've picked up the story from there. I'm told that page 2 will go online Wednesday. The art is being done by the incredibly talented Becky Dreistadt who gets double props from me for being a New Zealander. Go commonwealth! Having seen some of Becky's concept art for this project, I can assure you it's going to look awesome!

I'm not sure exactly how Lookouts will be distributed, but I've written four pages to complete this first story and I'm assuming they'll appear on the Penny Arcade site per the usual Mon-Wed-Fri schedule (starting Wednesday 7/1). As for anything after that, we'll just have to see how the response is. Hope you enjoy!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

So forgive me for not blogging in a while. Fortunately I have a lot of great reasons, and if you've been following me on twitter, you may have seen the photo evidence. If not, here's more:

That's me front-left making a weird face. And that's my buddy John on the right succumbing to the will of the river. It's not a good bachelor party unless you come back with one less guy right? So yes, last weekend that awesome group of guys in the raft showed me a hell of a time, thus no time for any personal writing.

The other reason I haven't been posting is that I was busy working on my first graphic novel blog post for NBC & 9th Wonders which is now available to read! Unfortunately the comments don't seem to be working but NBC is (I hope) trying to get that fixed. (Comments almost fixed...) In it, I discuss how we came up with the idea for the Rebellion arc of graphic novels and the decisions behind who would be on Rebel's team.

Other than that Heroes continues to usurp my life. I write outlines for every episode which takes a monumental amount of time. We've been breaking story all week and heading into the weekend/early next week I'm going to be writing outlines for episodes five and six. As Jason Badower often reminds me, "eh, we'll sleep when we're dead right?"

Oh, one last thing. Once I reach 1500 followers on Twitter (about 150 to go!) I'm going to be running a little contest to give away a Heroes comic book. The only way to find out how to win is if you're following me. So what are you waiting for? Join the twitterverse!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Short post today as I've been busy answering all the questions about the Heroes graphic novel arc "Rebellion". Head over to 9th Wonders to see the questions and their answers. There's still time to ask a question if there's anything you're curious about.

And if you're still hungry for more Rebellion behind the scenes, you should check out Jason Badower's blog. He's the artist for the latest graphic novel, "Family" and next week's, "Left Behind". He's been going through talking about each page in detail. Definitely worth the read.

I also want to take a moment to give a shout out to a friend of mine who got his first game turned into an iPhone app. It's called "A Robo Riot!" and IMHO a steal at only 99 cents. I really enjoy it, but you don't have to take my word for it, you can give it a try for free over at Kongregate. If it seems like something you'd like to carry with you on your iPhone or iPod, please pick it up.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Just a quick post to update everyone on the schedule for the Graphic Novels. We needed to space things out a little bit so unfortunately there will be no comic next Monday 5/25. But I want to keep everyone informed, so here's what the schedule currently looks like:

6/1 - Rebellion Part 4: Left Behind

6/15 - Rebellion Part 5: Wanted

Mid July - Rebellion Part 6

Mid August - Rebellion Part 7

September returns us to our regular weekly schedule. I know, I'm as bummed as you are that we can't do more, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. How about this: What if someone over at 9th Wonders starts a thread for everyone to post questions about the current Rebellion arc. And on Monday/Tuesday I'll do my best to answer them all. It's no new comic, but hopefully something to look forward to at least. As always, keep in mind that I can't comment on speculation/theories/spoilers and please try and keep your questions limited to Rebellion.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Still no 9th Wonders Blog for me yet so I can't talk too much about the Heroes Graphic Novels. But you should forgive the tech team for the delay because they're hard at work putting together something that I think is going to be fun and awesome and help occupy the cold Heroes Summer months. I'd tell you more but I've already said too much...

It's been another busy week at Heroes (when is it not?). The writers have put together a super-rough draft of the first episode and we're going to have episode two later this evening. At the moment, these are just "internal" drafts which means no one beyond the writers have seen them. Production is gearing up though, doing 100 different things, but primarily building new sets and revamping some old ones. As you might expect they can't wait to get their hands on that first script.

Some time tonight/tomorrow "Family", part 3 of "Rebellion" will appear online. You've read part 1 and part 2 right? Parts 3 and 4 were written by me and drawn by Jason Badower. I can't tell you how much fun it is to work with Jason. Besides becoming good friends, and so naturally having a good time, Jason is an absolute workhorse. He cares more about his art and about telling a good and complete story than anyone I've met. Some artists draw spectacular art but only think about one panel at a time -- the pages may look great, but sometimes the story just doesn't quite track. Not so with Jason. His attention to the details of the story are unparalleled. There are two panels in particular that really demonstrate what I'm talking about -- I'll go into more detail once it's online. In short, I have a man-crush on Jason, you get the picture.

The last fun bit of news is that I'm fairly certain this comic is going to be printed and end up being handed out at the San Diego Comic Con in July. I'm not certain what type of presence Heroes will have there this year, but tickets are still available for Thursday and Sunday if you want to go. I also have no idea how the comics will be distributed. If you can't make it and want some swag, my advice is to befriend someone who is going and see if they can't snag an extra one. Barring epic disaster I'll be there on Saturday and I'm sure Jason will be around also.

I'll likely post later this week with my rant, I mean follow-up, on spoilers and how audience knowledge alters the viewing experience.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

NBC is still getting things sorted on the blog front, so I'll start off with some quick Heroes Graphic Novel news. By now you've hopefully read the first two parts of Rebellion written by Zach Craley and drawn by Dennis Calero. We'll continue with this arc through the summer, finding out what Rebel was up to and hitting some moments from "Fugitives" along the way.

One bit of bad news that I have to drop is that we're only going to be doing one comic each month in June, July and August. The good news is that they'll be a bit larger, 8 pages each, and will allow us to dig in more and tell deeper stories in each of those chapters.

But don't fret, we'll return to regular weekly issues in September and tell a new story which will lead into the premier of Volume 5. And not that it's any huge consolation, but I'll continue to blog each week and talk about some of the graphic novels we've done in the past. Maybe it'll give you a reason to go back and revisit some of those.

I've been busy recently working on parts 3 and 4 of Rebellion and have been fortunate enough to team up with Jason Badower once again. We've had a lot of fun working on this together and I honestly think Jason has turned in some of his best work yet. I can't wait for it to go online next week!

As for the shows itself, the writers have spent the last several weeks breaking story, and we are now busy writing the first couple of episodes. The current plan is to start pre-production two weeks from now and begin filming in early June -- holy moly, that arrived fast!

You Might be a "Red Shirt" if...

If you follow me on Twitter you may have caught my tweets labeled "Writers Room Lingo" (Thanks to @cadetevon's suggestion I've now started tagging them with #WRL). For those not in the know, WRL is simply a definition of a somewhat unusual term or phrase that might pop up in the writers room while breaking story. Some of these terms are specific to our group of writers, others can apply to any film set and many are familiar to just about any TV audience. If you've visited tvtropes.org you know what I'm talking about, it's a fun site.

Perhaps one of my favorite terms is "red shirt". It was originated during the original Star Trek Series in which the security officers wore red shirts. Whenever several of the main actors went on a dangerous mission a security officer would naturally tag along and inevitably meet an untimely demise. It is perhaps best summed up by this image sent to me by another one of my fantastic followers @rand21althor:Using a "red shirt" is a difficult technique in a scripted series. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't because when your main characters go on a mission you want to dramatize that it's a dangerous mission. The problem is that you can't kill your main characters. Or at least, the Network won't let you. So, you stick a red shirt with them that can be injured/maimed/killed to prove how dangerous the mission is. However, an educated audience is going to spot it a mile away. On Star Trek they literally wore red shirts but there are other ways to spot a red shirt.

You might be a red shirt if...

You are carrying equipment essential to the mission.

You do something nice/selfless.

You did something bad and deserve comeuppance.

You say something along the lines of "We've got nothing to worry about" or "I'm glad that's over".

There are countless other ways to spot a red shirt and while the truly great ones are the ones you don't even notice, most serve more than one purpose. For example, the red shirt that dies with mission-essential equipment implicitly makes the mission harder for the remaining characters. Your heroes have to be that much more heroic to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds. This is also an example of "raising the stakes".

The nice guy/selfless act is a ploy to get an emotional response from the audience. If you find yourself thinking "I like that guy, I sure hope he doesn't die..." watch out! Likewise with the person who deserves "comeuppance" -- you'll find yourself thinking "I hope that rotten bastard gets his!" and when he does, you'll feel satisfied.

The character that dies right after breathing a sigh of relief is more of a horror movie technique and it's mostly a way of telling the audience "this ride 'ain't over yet, hold on tight!" It helps keep the suspense going and makes the audience feel similarly anxious to the character being chased by the axe murderer; like you can't stop and take a breath.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, while I do hope you're interested, I really just want you to suffer like I do. As my fiancee can attest, watching television with me (especially a certain episode of BSG -- sorry sweetie!) isn't always fun. You see, although I do get a certain satisfaction from spotting a red shirt, part of me is disappointed that I won't be surprised later on when that character dies. It's the "curse" of working in the industry. Knowing the trade secrets oftentimes ruins the viewing experience.

Audience knowledge is an interesting topic and one that I think is very relevant to the Heroes universe. Should writers take into consideration what the audience might already know in terms of behind-the-scenes knowledge, not to mention spoilers? Provided I don't get sidetracked by a different topic, I'll talk more about the "curse" next week, or as I like to call it: "I'm hiding behind that rock with a walkie-talkie".

That's all for now, please post comments/questions, follow me on twitter, and whatever you do, don't carry the mission-essential explosives while wearing a red space suit!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Hi, for those who don't know me, my name is Oliver Grigsby. I'm a writer for the NBC television show Heroes and a writer/editor for the Heroes graphic novels. I'm also a dog owner, a geek and a soon-to-be husband. I decided to start a blog after spending the last two months on Twitter and having an absolute ball. It wasn't until then that it occurred to me that people might be vaguely interested in what I had to say.

The snag was that NBC is also interested in what I have to say. So at their request, we're going to setup a space on 9thWonders.com for me to officially talk about the Heroes graphic novels. Schedule allowing, I'll post there every week after the comic goes online and go into more detail about the creation process behind bringing these to life.

They're still working on some technical details but I'm told that things will be ready next Monday. If you subscribe to my blog here or follow me on twitter I'll be sure and let you know when it's ready.

So, what is this blog going to be about?

It's still going to be about Heroes. That's what I do for about 70 hours a week -- yeah, that's 40% of my life -- so there'll be plenty of Heroes stuff to talk about. Other topics that may or may not get covered...

My wedding: I'm getting married in less than 4 months to the love of my life. (See #4 for more).

Our dog: In grade school most kids write about their dogs. I never got that chance, so I'll be making up for lost time and subjecting all of you to it. Right now our dog has an itchy butt.

Teaching my fiancee (lets go ahead and start calling her "Abby") to play video games: I think this may be one of the crowning achievements of my life. As of about two years ago Abby had never even played video games. Today she head-caps zombies in Left 4 Dead like she was born to do it. Did I mention we're getting married? Do I need any further explanation as to why? I didn't think so...

So, welcome! Let's start with some Heroes news -- In case you haven't heard, the summer arc of graphic novels is underway! The first chapter of "Rebellion" will appear online sometime tonight/early Tuesday morning. It's written by Zach Craley with art by Dennis Calero (X-Factor, X-men: Noir). Dennis is in high demand in the Marvel Universe these days so we're very lucky to have him working on this for us and let me tell you, the stuff looks amazing!

A quick FYI, this chapter takes place in the Heroes timeline at the same time as episode 314 (A Clear and Present Danger) when everyone was rounded up. Rebellion will continue through the summer and explore what Rebel was up to during the Fugitives arc. I'll talk about this specific chapter and more of our summer plans on 9thWonders once everything is setup over there.

We're also hard at work in the writers room breaking story for Season 4 of Heroes. NBC gave us an official pickup today which is good considering we've been working for several weeks already. Things are going well, and we've been making a lot of progress.

Please post comments, I'll do my best to reply and if you want even more behind-the-scenes Heroes news be sure to follow me on Twitter!